


The Distance of Time

by zevra1elf



Category: Castlevania (Cartoon), Devil May Cry
Genre: Cannon typical violence and gore, Crossover, F/M, M/M, Mentions of incest, No Beta, PTSD, Slow Burn, We Die Like Men, mentions of past and current relationships, self indulgent crack, two angry boys tired of their families shit
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-22
Updated: 2020-06-07
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:15:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,108
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24318688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zevra1elf/pseuds/zevra1elf
Summary: Nero can not catch a break it seems. As the world is finally beginning to calm down a mischievous pixie manages to toss him through a portal that sends him through time, landing him in the territory of one angsty vampire Jesus, Alucard Tepes. (That's all I got for now, I'm not great at summaries)
Relationships: Alucard | Adrian Tepes | Arikado Genya/Trevor Belmont, Alucard/Nero, Dante/Vergil (Devil May Cry), Kyrie/Nico (Devil May Cry), Trevor Belmont/Sypha Belnades
Comments: 4
Kudos: 57





	1. The last straw

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: This is self-indulgent crack I wrote and published at around 4am but if you like it as much as I do feel free to give me your thoughts on it. I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it.

It wasn’t bad enough that Nero’s father had tried to destroy humanity in his bid for power. It wasn’t bad enough that Vergil had torn off his Devil Arm and then stabbed himself with Yamato, splitting himself into two halves. Even when he encountered V and immediately began to have confusing feelings about the strange, enthralling human that centered primarily on how the summoner would look splayed beneath him. The army of demons that he had to tear through wasn’t all that bad, nor was Dante’s insistence that he stay out of his fight with the strange would be King of Hell. Learning that the man he was pining for was actually his father was cutting it a bit close but Nero could get over it. He could deal with his father and uncle leaving Earth to seal the gateway to Hell from the other side, leaving Nero to clean up the disaster that was left behind. Even when he learned his ex-girlfriend Kyrie began dating Nico shortly after the disaster of Red Grave city calmed down he was still ok. Just barely, but ok.

Getting pushed through a portal by some God damned pixie to who even knew where because wherever it was had absolutely no signal? For some reason **THAT** was the straw that broke this particular camel’s back. For a few minutes Nero stares into nothingness as he blinks down at his phone which he has been trying to get to work for the last thirty minutes unsuccessfully. It still has a good deal of battery life, thank you Nico for your brilliant mechanical genius, but it is completely useless at this point. He places it back into his jacket pocket, taking deep breaths as he attempts to control his anger. Since he has fully awakened to his demonic heritage he has learned why it’s called a Devil ‘Trigger’. 

With no humans or buildings in sight, however, Nero decides to fuck with it. The roar unleashed by the demonic entity is heard for miles, scattering all nearby wildlife smart enough to flee from the creature’s wrath. He does not bother using Red Queen or Blue Rose; his bare hands and clawed wings were more than enough. His fangs ached with the need to rip and tear but fortunately, there was nothing dumb enough to remain in the area with the vicious monster. It allowed the demon to embrace its’ violent nature, felling trees and smashing open rocks, ripping open the earth with his feet.

The sun is descending into the western sky by the time his anger subsides by which point so is all the energy that Nero has to give. As his demonic form subsides he stumbles on his feet, panting heavily as he slumps down onto his knees. The hunter is exhausted mentally, spiritually, and now physically. As much as he knows he should try and find the nearest city or at least start walking in a random direction in hopes of finding a cellphone signal the heir of Sparda can not find it in himself to care. He lays down on the ground, first on his side before rolling onto his back, staring up at the darkening sky as his chest continues to heave. 

Wherever he is must be far from any major cities for even now he can see the first glimpses of stars. He takes a deep breath of the air, holding in the crisp, clean air and slowly releasing it. Nero isn’t used to the lack of dirt and grime in the air and comes to the conclusion that damned pixie must have dropped him off in Iceland or perhaps a nature preserve of some kind. All the more reason to get up and figure out exactly which of those things it was but honestly he can’t find it in himself to budge. He’s been fighting the remnants of Vergil’s mess for two months now and selfishly begins to think he deserves a break. The demons can have fun for a couple of hours while the demonic hunter takes a rest. Just a few short hours of rest, basking in the sounds of chirping crickets and a far off river babbling off. Yeah...just a short nap. Then he’ll get back to worrying what might have taken offense to his little temper tantrum.

\----

Alucard wished to be left alone. The world had been content to leave him alone for a time till those two foolish hunters had come to his doorstep. They were still there, rotting for their betrayal though he had given them the decency of covering their naked bodies with nightshirts. So when he steps out of his home after a relatively uneventful sleep to find a cluster of animals seemingly ignoring all common sense he is, to put it lightly, annoyed. Golden eyes narrow as he sneers, the small action enough to send the animals running. Not an uncommon reaction these days except they all run in the same direction; past him and his home.

Normally it mattered not the direction as long as it was away from the vampire hybrid but the fact that they all ran in the same direction was concerning. He had been planning on hunting before the last of the light vanished from the sky but this new development brought some concern to the last living Tepes. With a frown he grasps the hilt of his sword, furrowing his brow before launches into a sprint through the woods. In the first bound he is human and with the second his form shifts, the white wolf growling angrily as the pads of his feet thud across the ground. 

He pauses for a moment only to scent the night air, trying to find the source of the disturbance. It’s not that hard. The scent of a high ranking demon lingers like fog in the air, torn wood and freshly carved dirt fixing with the rage that must have fueled the destruction it brought to his wooded home. There is also something else, something he can not place but Alucard pays it no mind, running to the source of the smells. He quickly sees the start of the demon’s destruction; trees are either broken in half or completely uprooted, boulders have been turned to pebbles and everything strong enough to show any form of resistance has been turned to a shredded, smaller version of itself. 

During the war his father brought upon this world he had seen many kinds of demons but they were all lesser demons that could easily bend to the will of a vampire such as his father. That’s why he chose human Forgemasters rather than trying to tame the hideous creatures themselves; demons respected power up to a point but they also saw it as a challenge. If Dracula himself had tried to call upon a demon army he would have garnered it much faster but he also would have had to deal with the Generals of Hell that he was stealing from. The Forgemasters were a convenient workaround to the problem. Those demons had been desperate to get out of the Inferno, so desperate they bowed down to humans like Isaac and Hector.

By the smell of it this demon was unbound; no one commanded it. It had escaped Hell on its’ own accord and called no living or undead being master. A threat that Adrian Tepes could not afford to linger on his lands. He would find it and end the life of this miserable creature before it could cause him trouble. The damage to the land around him begins to dwindle, showing how the demon began to lose steam during its’ rampage. The scent had also begun to shift subtly with each step into the area Alucard took. Had the Greater Demon left once its’ anger had been satiated? Most beasts’ would remain in a territory they had so thoroughly claimed but then again Greater Demon’s supposedly had more logical ways of thinking. 

He was just pondering over this theory when a loud, gravely snore reached his lupine ears, both turning in the direction of the sound. Alucard snarled, shifting back into his human form and levitating his blade at his side while slowly approaching the source of the disturbance. It was coming from around a large, half-broken bolder, a perfect hiding spot for any predator looking for a quick nap. Perhaps this Greater Demon was not so wise as to leave after all. The vampire contemplates his choices carefully before deeming he had the element of surprise. 

Forgoing any attempts to sneak up on the trespasser he rushes about the corner and points his blade at the source of the sound, freezing at the sight before him. This sound, this grating, gravely, unholy noise was emerging from the throat of a human man. Well, human-looking man. Alucard was a testament to appearances being deceiving and that noise can not emerge from anything that doesn’t have just the tiniest amount of demonic blood in them. Surely not anyway. Even if this man was a full-fledged human he was a foolish one, sleeping in a place so freshly ransacked by a monster of considerable power. 

Though from the looks of it he’s a well-traveled man. His pants, while dirty, are unlike any clothing he has seen and appears to be well-tailored. The human’s shirt is also simple but well made, though considerably more worn taking the holes and discoloring into consideration. What is most striking is his dark blue jacket; a color normally reserved for nobility and the upper class and certainly never made into fine leather such as this. It also appears to be layered, suggesting that it was made for combat rather than comfort. Despite this, a good chunk appears to be torn from the right sleeve, almost as if something physically tore it off. 

Moving his gaze upwards led him to the most startling revelation about the human he had yet to make. In the right light his own hair might be mistaken as silvery rather than the shade of light blond it actually is but this man possessed truly white hair. Free of the dirt and grime that dusted through it he was sure it would glow in the light of the moon. Curiously the vampire inches forward, reaching out to touch the whisps of short, white locks only for the human to suddenly shift. 

Alucard jerks back as the intruder lets out a low groan, rolling onto his side to reveal he had been sleeping on top of a blade. He ought to be more concerned about an armed invader entering his home but what kind of creature, man or otherwise, can fall asleep on such a bulky looking object. He sneers at the reminder that this man was in fact not welcome on his lands, gently nudging him with his foot. “Get up.” He growls out, the human simply shifting further into the dirt, pillowing his head with his arm. 

“Five more minutes.” He drawls out, clearly intent on remaining out in the woods, in the open, with some kind of Greater Demon on the loose. 

This causes Dracula’s heir to roll his eyes, kicking him with a little more force to encourage the young man before him to get up. “I don’t think you realize where you are sleeping.” The stranger scowls deeply in response and the air around him shifts, crackling with the demonic energy the vampire had sensed earlier. He leaps back in time to avoid a spectral limb being shoved in his general direction, taking his blade and reading it for battle. 

For the hundredth time that night Alucard is stunned to silence by the sight greeting him. It’s not physical, per se. If he had remained where he had been standing the arm might have punched him in the face but there was nothing threatening about it. Rather the single wing and its’ clawed hand were giving him the largest middle finger he had ever been given in his life. “Go read your stupid book V. I’ll be up in a few…” He trails off with a heavy yawn, curling into the fetal position as his snores begin anew, the limb disappearing as quickly as it came.

Golden eyes blink a few times before his face goes from astonishment to annoyance. So his earlier theory was correct; this was no mere human at all but the Greater Demon he had been seeking. Just what kind of demon was he though? Most would act quickly when threatened by one such as Alucard but this one didn’t seem to give two shits about his presence, let alone anything else. With an aggravated huff he returns to that man’s side, kneeling down and poking his forehead. He might as well been poking the rock for all the good it does him, the stranger’s snoring beginning anew. 

With an angry growl Alucard quickly moves away but he is not retreating. This wanderer has come onto his lands, destroyed a good chunk of his home, and was completely ignoring him. Anyone else would have been cowering in fear by now except for...except for…

His steps falter as his mind drifts back to the man who had left him behind. Trevor Belmont had his reasons for leaving Alucard in the abandoned ashes of his home. There was knowledge both there and in the Belmont hold that could damn the entire world if it fell into the wrong hands but at the same time he had _left_ him. Didn’t bother staying to recover from his wounds and Sypha had not done anything in protest of this either they had just left him in the empty graves of their families. 

Trevor was a foolish, heartless man though at least one of those things could be said about Alucard. He was the one who had fallen in love with a human who made it clear from the start his intent to leave once this mess with his father was finished. Trevor was always brash, careless, stupid, and seemed like the type who would dismiss him if he had simply fallen asleep after drinking several bottles of his good wine. He was sure the Hunter would give him the exact same response this demon was giving him with the same amount of respect. That being zero.

The comparison annoyed the young hybrid even further, rushing to the river where he left several buckets in case of an emergency like a fire. Adrian fills one up, moving quickly yet carefully back to where the human is sleeping. He climbs on top of the boulder before squatting down, once more gazing at the sleeping man’s visage. When he’s not being unforgivingly rude the hunter was almost cute...no, stop that. Remember what happened with the last hunter you that was cute. And the one before that for good measure.

With new determination he takes the bucket of cold water and, after a brief deliberation, dumps the entire thing unceremoniously on the demon’s face. The result brings the smallest of smiles to Adrien’s pale face; the man sputters and curses aloud, flailing about before bolting upright, shaking his hair, and cursing in both English and the demonic tongue. “What the hell?!” It was at that moment the vampire tosses the bucket at Nero’s head, watching the man manages to snatch it out of the air before glaring hot, no, icy blue daggers into Alucard’s golden eyes.

“Good, you’re awake.” The heir muses, standing up to look down at Nero from above, attempting to look as intimidating as possible. “Care to tell me why you’ve come here, hunter?”


	2. Truce? Truce.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Face to face with the unknown the two hyrbids size each other up. Alucard might be a little too starved for interaction and Nero might just be too tired to give a fuck.

Nero didn’t react to rude awakenings like this well. After months of fighting demons in the city, grabbing only a few uninterrupted hours of sleep when he could, the hunter had grown accustomed to waking up quickly with a weapon in his hand. So when cold water rushes over his head he leaps up, gun in hand, turning around and pointing it at the source of the silky voice.

He suspects the man is taller than himself even when he doesn’t have the high ground. Golden eyes look down at the half-demon with a look of superiority that burns under Nero’s skin, the hunter gritting his teeth at the man’s question. The stranger doesn’t look like a threat, not with his long, flowing locks of gold hair or his lithe build but his instincts are screaming otherwise. Danger, his demon growled out, feeling power crackle underneath his flesh as they stare each other down. 

Nero considers his options carefully before responding; the man is armed with a blade no ordinary human would be able to wield with skill but the fact he hadn’t taken the opportunity to attack while the Sparda was asleep meant he was either dumb or confident and the pale-skinned man did not strike him as dumb. Not with that voice, a voice that echoed the sound of a poet he knew not so long ago. Just the thought as the demon gritting his teeth, as he steps forward, Blue Rose still pointed in the vampire’s direction. 

“To Hell if I know.” He scoffs, shrugging his shoulders as he maintains a defensive stance. “One moment I’m on pest control the next a fucking pixie has me dancing around before pushing me through a portal and landing my ass here.” He growls out these words in annoyance, picturing how he will tear off that sharp-toothed fly’s wings out one by one as soon as he figures out how to return to Redgrave. That train of thought as a soft chuckle reaches his ears, gaze snapping back to his involuntary host. “What is so funny?!”

Alucard is watching the hunter with every move he makes, analyzing him carefully to try and determine what he’s dealing with. He is not familiar with the weapon that is currently pointed at him. It _looks_ like a gun but guns are poor weapons against vampires. They take too long to load and though they are powerful they are hardly viable for more than one shot. If it is a gun then he should be wary of what it is capable of, considering it lacks the key features of any other gun in the era. That the hunter chose to point it at Alucard rather than his much more formidable blade proved he had some faith that it could harm him, even at this close distance.

Then Nero opens his mouth and all traces of hesitation vanish. He rants about he was tricked by a pixie of all things and Alucard can’t help the soft huff of laughter left his lips. This sets the demonic human off, the vampire looking down at him with a soft smirk. “Nothing.” The glare he receives in response says the hunter isn’t buying it so he continues. “I’m just curious as to how such a clearly experienced hunter gets tricked by a pixie by all things.” 

Nero feels his brow begin to twitch as his hold on Blue Rose tightens, finger pressing against the trigger. His demon is screaming inside him now, itching to cut loose. This man would clearly put up more of a fight than the trees and animals that had fled his wrath, than any of the demons his father had left behind for his son to deal with. Nero can’t deny he’s itching for a proper scrap even though his body is still screaming for a proper sleep that he hasn’t gotten for months. All the more reason to grit his teeth, steel himself, and shove his fun back into its holster. “It doesn’t matter what I was doing there though. I’m not going to fight.”

Those must not be the words that Alucard is expecting for his golden eyes widen slightly in shock, the human continuing on. “I can’t pinpoint what you are but you’re not a normal human. If you wanted to hurt me you would have done so already and I’m not going to draw my sword against you unless you become a threat to me.” Nero’s eyes turn up towards the sky as the light begins to dim, cursing beneath his breath before he digs into his pocket, pulling out his phone to check the time. “Damn it. Still no signal...and I think the clock’s out of sync too.” He whispers to himself, glaring down at the device as if it had somehow insulted him.

Alucard had fully expected the man to attack him in some way. The man was a hunter of some caliber and honestly, the vampire wanted to fight. He wanted a reason to hurt this young man for invading his home he wanted to feel...something besides the empty loneliness in his gut. Right when the half-demon was on the edge of his anger though he reigned himself in, disarming himself so that he couldn’t shoot at Alucard if things got out of control. That the hunter did so knowing what he was made him either very confident in his other skills or very foolish. More than likely both. Though as he pulls out a square object from his pocket Alucard can’t help but feel his curiosity peak.

Like the lights, he had installed down in the depths of the Belmont hold it lit up, illuminating the young man’s face with white light. He also mentioned a clock being out of sync but surely that device couldn’t be a clock, could it? With stealth only possible due to his vampiric heritage he glides around the man, peeking over his shoulder to stare at the device. There are several symbols there that he doesn’t understand, labeled in a language he has never seen. Perhaps even more curiously there is a picture of some sort that is currently obstructed by these small icons. His father was one of the few who knew the true science and yet he never knew such a small object could be so...confusing. 

“What is that?” Only when the human jumps away from Alucard does he realize just how close he had been, the hunter fumbling with the strange rectangle after he nearly drops it. Blue eyes are blown wide as he clutches the treasure close to his chest, staring at the pale hybrid for a moment or two before he scowls. 

“Does the concept of personal space mean anything to you?!” Nero growls out, moving to pocket his phone once more before the question registers in his head. Then he pauses, looking down at his cellphone and then to Alucard. “My cellphone?...When was the last time you saw human civilization?”

“A few weeks ago. The only thing remarkable about it is that any of it remains after...well.” He looks away, expecting the hunter to understand what he is referring to. It is likely that all the known world has heard at least some tale as to what happened here and all by his father’s hand. He would rather not kill this one, not until his curiosity was satisfied at least but with luck he could convince Nero to leave without needless bloodshed. Not because Alucard didn’t want to rip his head off his shoulders but more because Alucard just didn’t want to have as little to do with the outside world as possible.

“What remains?” Nero thinks for a moment, rolling over his words before a long, frustrated groan leaves his lips, his free hand covering his face. “Great. Exactly how far did dad’s bullshit spread?” 

“I am sure you are well aware of how far my father’s exploits took him. It’s hard to find a soul in these parts that was not affected by his attempts to wipe out humanity.” Alucard expects the hunter to curse at him, to realize who he was and attack. That’s not the reaction he gets, however. Instead, the white-haired youth stares at him in shock, mouth falling open and eyes growing even wider. 

“Your dad?” He whispers in disbelief, the gears in his head turning before another groan passes his lips, running a hand through his hair. “I am going to pray to whatever God exists that we are talking about two separate things because I can NOT deal with having a half-sibling right now.” He pleads with Alucard who looks similarly perplexed, the hunter taking a deep breath to steel his nerves before he dares to ask another question. “Vergil Sparda. Dante. A giant tree ripping people apart and bleeding humans for their blood. Ring any bells?”

Now it’s the vampire’s turn to be shocked. His father had summoned many atrocities but he was unaware of any plant-like demons that had been released. Furthermore, neither of the names meant anything to him other than a book he had read in the past month about one man’s journey into hell. Thus he decides to slowly shake his head ‘no’ to which the demon-hybrid lets out a sigh of relief, slumping against the boulder he had been sleeping against earlier. “Thank fuck for that. The last thing I need right now is history repeating itself.”

Those words cause the white-haired hunter to pause, echoing those words over and over in his mind. History. Now that he thought about it there was a disaster he had heard about from Trish that was caused by a vampire, one that had torn Europe apart. He didn’t know the details about it, kind of tuned most of the history lesson out, but he DID know that it happened in the past. Way, way in the past. His expression grows desperate once more, gulping as he turns his eyes back to his gracious host. “This is going to sound like a weird question but can you give me the date? All of it?” Alucard raises a brow as it truly is an odd thing to ask out of the blue but he gives the answer willingly.

Nero takes a deep breath, pressing his hands together in front of his face as he eyes close for a brief moment. “Just...give me a second.” He states, turning to face the boulder as his body shakes with renewed anger. He roars out in frustration as wings erupt from his back, bashing his fists into the poor rock, breaking it into pieces after only a few swings. “Fuck fuck FUCK!” He growls out, stepping away from the mess he had created, sneering. “I am going to find that pest of a pixie and rip off its limbs one by one!” The hunter snarled out, taking deep breathes as the last of the rubble crumpled to the ground. 

“Ok.” Nero sighs out, turning to Alucard who has taken several steps away to avoid the fallout. “This is going to sound...crazy but I’m not from here. Like, four hundred YEARS not from here.” He blurts out, the vampire staring at him in a disbelieving manner and thus Nero pulls out his phone again. “Here, I can prove it. Come look.” He states, opening his photo album and flicking through to one of the city of Redgrave before the incident. It couldn’t hurt to show him a single photo, especially when he appeared to be that apprehensive.

The vampire hybrid hesitates, weighing the options before him. Nero was clearly capable of putting up a fight if he wanted to but he didn’t seem to be a threat. Perhaps he didn’t understand fully who or what he was but perhaps that was for the best. If he had truly been ‘displaced’ as he claimed then would it harm him to allow the human close? Besides the lack of communication and travel, he was starting to become bored out of his mind, and that strange device was the most enticing thing he had seen since perhaps before he had met Trevor and Sypha. So he approaches, curiosity winning out over caution, staring at the device and squinting his eyes. “It...is a bit bright.”

“Oh, sorry.” Nero turns the phone back towards himself, running his finger along the screen. The light fades from it as he dims the brightness before he turns it towards his strange companion once more. “Better?”

Golden eyes look to the image before him, growing wide as the vast number of buildings stretched out to fill the frame. More than that there were also strange things littered all over the image, traveling on what he can assume is a very smooth road, people milling about and looking down at devices similar to the one Nero is holding. The lamposts are something he can at least deduce the identity of but rather than the candles that light villages at night they hold bulbs like those he had installed down in the Belmont hold. Humans, or at least this city, had grasped the true science. 

One slender finger touches the screen, tracing the outline of one of the mysterious carriages (cars) sliding it along and flinching back as the image shifts. Gone is the city, replaced by a man passed out drunk by the looks of it. Clad in a red jacket, hair, and stubble covering his chin the same white as Nero’s, mouth open in a loud snore while his face, the focus of the picture, was covered in black markings. One which he knew for a fact was a crudely drawn penis. “What...is this?” He manages to ask, Nero pulling the device away to look down at what had caught Alucard’s attention. 

“Heh, I remember this picture. Lady and I...oh.” He clears his throat, rubbing the back of his head as he realizes the vampire was not referring to the photo at all. “It’s a cellphone. It’s rare to find a human who doesn’t have one of them. They can do just about anything; produce light, take pictures, videos, call other people...half of that doesn’t mean anything to you.” He chuckles out, pocketing the ‘cellphone’ much to the hybrid’s dismay. “Do you believe me?” 

Believe him? Ah yes, he had said he had been tricked into traveling through time. He had read a great deal about the fae folk in his childhood and higher pixies were capable of such feats so he could safely say Nero was telling the truth. “I believe you. You’ll forgive me if I don’t trust a hunter, however.” He states plainly, said hunter raising a brow to him before chuckling. 

His phantasmal wings return, a bioluminescent light in the growing darkness, spreading to their full width in full display. Alucard is unsure if he’s supposed to be intimidated or impressed but he is intrigued at the very least. Most demons had leathery wings, sometimes feathered, but never both. “I’d be a hypocrite if I attacked you just because you had fangs. Now,” his new limbs retract, talons curling comfortably on his shoulders, “if you were rampaging along the countryside tearing open the necks of humans left and right that would be different.”

Silence hangs uncomfortably in the air after the hunter says this, lingering long enough for the youth to raise a questioning brow at Alucard. “I,” he clears his throat, suddenly feeling sheepish, “might have recently murdered a couple of hunters and displayed their bodies outside of my home. In my defense, they attempted to kill me first. I did not, however, drink their blood.” He’s pleasantly surprised as Nero relaxes once more, no longer looking like he wants to reach for his gun. 

“Can’t say I approve of displaying their bodies but I can get behind defending yourself. Can’t say I haven’t had to do the same in the past.” Briefly, he remembers the faces of those he knew from the Order who quickly turned on him once their plan got into full swing. He remembers Credo, who, tried as he might, could not fight back the Order’s control after his so-called ‘Ascension’. He didn’t want to kill them and by the look on his host’s face he hadn’t wanted to kill those hunters either. It was a matter of survival, however, and Nero can’t fault the guy from wanting to stay alive. Or undead. Or...he’d have to ask which category the hybrid fell into at a later date.

“So,” he trails off as they stand awkwardly in the forest, rubbing the back of his head, “I don’t suppose you wouldn’t know an expert on Pixies? Kind of glossed over that chapter during my studies.” More like slept through it. Demons that used trickery rather than raw strength were rare and had never been a concern to Nero until now. If he was back in his time he’d try to ring Lady or Trish but they weren’t available for questions, obviously.

The vampire lets out a hum of thought, weighing out the options in front of him. This hunter has told him that he wasn’t going to attack him but he had thought the same of Sumi and Taka. Now they decorated his lawn and he was hesitant to let another get so close to him so soon. Someone of this man’s capabilities would find his way to the Belmont Hold eventually so it would be better to be able to keep a close eye on him rather than him wandering off on his own. “I do not. I know where one might find such knowledge, however.” There is also the matter of Alucard’s own curiosity. The hunters of the east were a temporary diversion and try as he might he desperately wanted some form of interaction, even if it wound up with this one dead as well. “Not for free, however.”

“You can’t have my phone,” Nero says bluntly, blue eyes narrowed at the vampire. The way the soldier had eyed the device had not escaped his notice and he had invested too much money and too many hours having Nico demon proof it to pawn it off. This thing could beat out Nokia in a durability contest, could go days without charging, and was solar-powered. So yeah, he wasn’t letting it go easily.

The near-instantaneous answer was somewhat troubling and Alucard could not help but wonder how such a small device could be worth more than getting back to one’s own time. That wasn’t what he was going to demand in the first place, however, so he would brush off his concerns for now. “I was merely going to request you answer my questions when I have them. Knowledge for knowledge.”

Nero feels himself relax once more though his face scrunches up as he thinks it over. It’s not a bad deal but he had seen enough movies to know how one flap of a butterfly’s wings could end a whole civilization. He couldn’t afford to jump in guns blazing when a single word in the right ear could derail his entire timeline. “I can’t guarantee I’ll answer all of your questions or that I’ll answer them truthfully but I can entertain you.”

“I am not asking for entertainment.” Alucard isn’t sure what expression he is wearing but it is clear the hunter, who is now laughing, does not buy it. 

“If you say so. Truce?” He holds out his hand to Alucard who stares down at it for a moment before reaching out and clasping Nero’s hand in his own. In a way they measure each other’s strength, testing how much of a grip the other has before they each let go, the hunter turning and walking off in a random direction. “So, where are we going?”

“The wrong way apparently.” Alucard huffs out, the hunter stopping and looking over his shoulder, scowling. 

“You don’t have to be an ass about it.”

“Oh I’m sorry, so you already know where I live?” He takes the answering silence as a no, turning to walk in the correct direction, the sound of crunching leaves and twigs assuring him Nero was following. “Didn’t think so.”

“Stuff it, Edward Cullen.”

“Adrian.” He halts, turning to look back to Nero once more, deciding it was well past time for them to introduce themselves. “Adrian Tepes. Most know me as Alucard.”

“Nero.” The demon hunter returns, smiling up at Adrian. There’s a smugness there that sends a painful reminder of another monster hunter to the vampire’s heart. “I guess you could say my last name is ‘Sparda’. It’s what the demons shout at me whenever I find one with a brain nowadays.” Child of Sparda, Heir to Sparda, Bastard Child of the Traitor. So many names. Alucard didn’t need to know any of that though.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy reading this as much as I do writing it! I plan on being more active with updates so I hope you will look forward to more chapters in the future.


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